What if it were empty? What if your dollar bill was worthless? What if we are exchanging monopoly money under the guise of real currency? What if we found out we were no longer a superpower country? That we were merely another tourist destination like Greece, desperate for foreign investment and holiday travelers? What if instead of a wrapped present the box was empty, and that we would be lucky to have coal in our stockings to burn for heat?
When Geraldo Rivera swung open the vault on national television in 1986 to broadcast Al Capone's secret hidden vault he was left holding a broken bottle of moonshine as his prize. Could Fort Knox's vault filled with the US gold supply seized by the US government be just as empty? Is that the reason we have no audit on the contents of this vault since 1974? This was the premise of the show Decoded I watched last night and I have to wonder if our whole economy is one big ponzi scheme generating value in our currency in the world markets that our government knows is non-existent.
Meanwhile earlier this year over $20B in diamonds, gold, and other treasures were discovered in a 16th century Hindu temple in southern India. Nice to know southern Hindu temples are better at protecting their assets than our government. Most recently here in the US a man purchased an abandoned storage unit for $1,100 and inside it was discovered to have of $600,000 of gold and silver coins. This was the great find that now may be not because the man who abandoned the unit is in jail awaiting federal charges of identity theft and the government may seize the loot based on the possible illegal means the former owner took to maintain it. Tough luck for the guy who thought he won a jackpot. More than likely it will be seized and never heard from again. If it is claimed eventually through legal channels the fees the guy will have to pay for a lawyer to seize it back will clean him out. If it is not the government secretly spending your tax dollars and gold reserves it is the lawyers we hire to defend ourselves of these ventures that do so boldly in our faces.
The lack of accountability and truth forthcoming from our government makes the days of pirates on open seas seem not only ideal but actually virtuous. They may have more honestly and ethics as they rob a ship's treasure face to face then the way our assets are robbed from us in the dark of night. This is why when we watch movies nowadays the bad guys are the guys chasing the supposed criminals. We've given up hope on the truth being fed to us we automatically assume the crimes don't fit the punishment and are even justified to begin with.
If they do open that vault at Fort Knox and we find it is empty what do we do? Will it be the wild west all over again? Do we start making decisions based on need rather than want or desire? It's a dark question four days before Christmas I know and maybe a time to start reflecting on more than the shiny present under the tree...unless it is gold bullion, but let's be realistic...we don't live in India..or China.
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
A-D-D-I-C-T...30 pts!
At least I haven't caused airplanes to fail from takeoff. My Words with Friends addiction has only impeded my work production. Unlike Alec Baldwin I would have shut off my game when the flight attendant informed me it was time to turn off my electronics...well if I didn't have a J or a Z maybe. Otherwise maybe I see Alec's point here, or points rather, like 50 of them and who needs to get anywhere on time really? We all need a few extra minutes delayed to get in a word or two between friends. Of course some of the words I have been playing have been more words than I have had with these friends in years, so maybe more "Words with Strangers" feels more appropriate. Of course then you are tiptoeing into some dicey situations. Oooh, good word, tiptoe, dicey, take personal memo...
No one took me up on my initial investment opportunity to that distant planet..heck even I forgot the name of it. I think once I discovered it wasn't a word I could score points on I lost interest: K-E-P-L-E-R..is not a valid word. Well that planet sucks! I understand the lack of interest now. So let's get back to reality. It's political season and my interest level is applied to my word play. N-E-W-T...word! Score!! M-I-T-T...score!! O-B-A-M-A...not a valid word...hmm...do I smell a regime change? As the wise Confucius once said.."If the words spell it, so it be true." Or maybe that was Y-O-D-A.
People the Christmas season is upon us. I don't know how merry everyone is but people are sure crabby. The cold weather doesn't help, the light wallets everyone's carrying, and the added general discord in the media and economic outlook can make the holiday music a little more grating to the ears than usual. Funny, I remember the songs being a little more cheerful but when they are blaring through our expensive Iphones or flatscreens they lose some of the lightness. Rudolph wasn't just a red-nosed reindeer he is a red-eyed debt collector coming with his cohorts with hooves and horns to take your stuff..and he's speaking another language too...what?? Frosty the snowman can also be another name for the bitter, un-festive, mean people that also seem to spring forth during the holidays. Um, sorry your life is rough and you aren't happy but try not to sprinkle your holiday misery my way, ok? Thanks! I've got some words for you..P-R-O-Z-A-C...R-U-M..or L-E-A-V-E!
I think the highlight for my cold holiday season is all the plans I put in my head about somewhere warm. I definitely am ready for a beach somewhere. I wish my present was some bright sunshine, warm sand, and a Mai Tai. Can we box that one up? At least I have the ability to visualize these things so I am not carrying around sadness all day like some people. Just because you are doing a transaction somewhere and someone ask how you are doing does not mean they want you to spill your troubles all over them. Head shrinks charge by the hour and bartenders get tips..I don't know where my compensation is for hearing people's life stories. The problem with reality is that without an inventive imagination it is not very enjoyable. Yet part of anything we enjoy takes creative thinking and visualization of something better. We either absorb the positive and the possible or we stand in the bread line and moan like we are all doomed to life in Siberia Russia. There Frosty is some comrade who beats you and Rudolph's red-nose is a hot poker used to torture information out of you. It could always be worse!
Anyways I've finished my blog for the day and have some words playing to get back to. C-I-A-O..not a valid word? WHAT?! SCREW THIS!!!
No one took me up on my initial investment opportunity to that distant planet..heck even I forgot the name of it. I think once I discovered it wasn't a word I could score points on I lost interest: K-E-P-L-E-R..is not a valid word. Well that planet sucks! I understand the lack of interest now. So let's get back to reality. It's political season and my interest level is applied to my word play. N-E-W-T...word! Score!! M-I-T-T...score!! O-B-A-M-A...not a valid word...hmm...do I smell a regime change? As the wise Confucius once said.."If the words spell it, so it be true." Or maybe that was Y-O-D-A.
People the Christmas season is upon us. I don't know how merry everyone is but people are sure crabby. The cold weather doesn't help, the light wallets everyone's carrying, and the added general discord in the media and economic outlook can make the holiday music a little more grating to the ears than usual. Funny, I remember the songs being a little more cheerful but when they are blaring through our expensive Iphones or flatscreens they lose some of the lightness. Rudolph wasn't just a red-nosed reindeer he is a red-eyed debt collector coming with his cohorts with hooves and horns to take your stuff..and he's speaking another language too...what?? Frosty the snowman can also be another name for the bitter, un-festive, mean people that also seem to spring forth during the holidays. Um, sorry your life is rough and you aren't happy but try not to sprinkle your holiday misery my way, ok? Thanks! I've got some words for you..P-R-O-Z-A-C...R-U-M..or L-E-A-V-E!
I think the highlight for my cold holiday season is all the plans I put in my head about somewhere warm. I definitely am ready for a beach somewhere. I wish my present was some bright sunshine, warm sand, and a Mai Tai. Can we box that one up? At least I have the ability to visualize these things so I am not carrying around sadness all day like some people. Just because you are doing a transaction somewhere and someone ask how you are doing does not mean they want you to spill your troubles all over them. Head shrinks charge by the hour and bartenders get tips..I don't know where my compensation is for hearing people's life stories. The problem with reality is that without an inventive imagination it is not very enjoyable. Yet part of anything we enjoy takes creative thinking and visualization of something better. We either absorb the positive and the possible or we stand in the bread line and moan like we are all doomed to life in Siberia Russia. There Frosty is some comrade who beats you and Rudolph's red-nose is a hot poker used to torture information out of you. It could always be worse!
Anyways I've finished my blog for the day and have some words playing to get back to. C-I-A-O..not a valid word? WHAT?! SCREW THIS!!!
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Investment Opportunity
I’m looking for investments into my new company. I am planning a trip to Kepler-22. You know, that planet 600 light-years away they say is like Earth. If you invest in it today then there is a good chance you can own a piece of this new planet too. I mean, it is 72 degrees and always sunny. The days move a little faster too so we won’t be stuck in the office as much. I am putting together pamphlets and a prospectus for your initial investments. Are you excited? In 2500 years we may actually reap the benefits of this new world. That is really setting up your great-great-great-great-great-great-great (to the twelfth power) grandchildren for success! Talk about the gift that keeps on giving for the holiday season. This one gives forever. It’s like buying coffee for the car behind you at Starbucks. Just please don’t be the scrooge that stops the giving train. With the way our dollar is spending might as well start your investment for the next millennium.
Right now we are being told the US dollar is worthless anyways. Everyone should be investing in Kardashian’s. That is the new currency according to Google. Every news article I find on there is Kardashian related. E news has somehow supplanted the New York Times as far as Google news is concerned. Our economy may be on the verge of collapse but that Kourtney is having another baby. Thanks for filling me in, I’m going to purchase some of that right away! The stock..not the baby. Of course the way our society has become in the realm of talentless individuals getting an unfair advantage on the playing field of life due to their last name lets go ahead and start investing in the babies of the wealthy today. Instead of writing my first screenplay for Justin Timberlake or Mila Kunis’s movie career I’ll just start one for their baby that they’ll eventually have. We’ll just fill in the name blank later.
There are unrealistic expectations from everyone. Companies want you to produce more with fewer resources and they offer less to you to do so. This is while you are being surveyed by customers for your experience level. Everyone is surveying experience level. If I go to McDonalds I know I am getting terrible service and I am lucky to get what I originally ordered and am hopeful it was not intentionally spit on by anyone in particular. That we now should expect excellent service from McDonalds is ridiculous. They pay their employees $5 an hour. They are not going to offer great service for $5 an hour! Just because the economy has collapsed and you can no longer afford a fancy steakhouse you have to realize that you get what you pay for! You want good service, pay for good service. It isn’t free. The problem with society is that we’ve adapted to this behavior where we expect something for nothing. If you don’t pay for service don’t be offended when you get none. The lack of economy and jobs notwithstanding does not mean your service level should improve either.
Of course my company provides excellent service, you just will get no return on your money this or next millennium. Your great-great…grandchildren (to the twelfth power) however, they will be enjoying some nice sunshine on their beach home on Kepler-22. That is of course unless a Kardashian invests in it first, then they are just screwed.
Right now we are being told the US dollar is worthless anyways. Everyone should be investing in Kardashian’s. That is the new currency according to Google. Every news article I find on there is Kardashian related. E news has somehow supplanted the New York Times as far as Google news is concerned. Our economy may be on the verge of collapse but that Kourtney is having another baby. Thanks for filling me in, I’m going to purchase some of that right away! The stock..not the baby. Of course the way our society has become in the realm of talentless individuals getting an unfair advantage on the playing field of life due to their last name lets go ahead and start investing in the babies of the wealthy today. Instead of writing my first screenplay for Justin Timberlake or Mila Kunis’s movie career I’ll just start one for their baby that they’ll eventually have. We’ll just fill in the name blank later.
There are unrealistic expectations from everyone. Companies want you to produce more with fewer resources and they offer less to you to do so. This is while you are being surveyed by customers for your experience level. Everyone is surveying experience level. If I go to McDonalds I know I am getting terrible service and I am lucky to get what I originally ordered and am hopeful it was not intentionally spit on by anyone in particular. That we now should expect excellent service from McDonalds is ridiculous. They pay their employees $5 an hour. They are not going to offer great service for $5 an hour! Just because the economy has collapsed and you can no longer afford a fancy steakhouse you have to realize that you get what you pay for! You want good service, pay for good service. It isn’t free. The problem with society is that we’ve adapted to this behavior where we expect something for nothing. If you don’t pay for service don’t be offended when you get none. The lack of economy and jobs notwithstanding does not mean your service level should improve either.
Of course my company provides excellent service, you just will get no return on your money this or next millennium. Your great-great…grandchildren (to the twelfth power) however, they will be enjoying some nice sunshine on their beach home on Kepler-22. That is of course unless a Kardashian invests in it first, then they are just screwed.
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
It ain't Knute Rockne
I am giving up my addiction. I only picked it up this fall. It was given to me by a co-worker. He told me it would be fun to try and he was heavily into it. A few of my friends were doing it, he said. It would consume whole days of my fall and winter. I would secretly check in on my addiction while at work and would relish when others who had this same addiction struggled. I envisioned myself continuing this lifestyle for years even if I knew it was destructive. It made me care about things I didn’t really care about and wasted hours on end for things that were meaningless to me, but they satisfied my urges and fulfilled the gaping void that my life has supposedly been without this addiction.
Of course I am talking about fantasy football. The aggravating, alienating, and mind-numbing game I was forced to play this fall by co-workers and friends alike. It has held my Sunday’s hostage for the last 12 weeks. I would wake up worrying that my players would not suit up and hit the field, not because I cared whether their team won or lost, but because I needed their points. I even found myself rooting against my favorite team if a star player on my fantasy team was up against them and I needed some “pointage.” My last straw of the absurdity of this stupid game is having a 40 point lead in the fourth quarter last night and watching my opponents reserve players collect 50 points against me in garbage time. My quarterback was so lights out and efficient it actually cost me the game because he stopped scoring.
There is no mercy rule in fantasy football. It seems the flaw in fantasy is when your players are too good that they still cost you wins. You can’t even win for making the right picks. This may be a fun past-time and a way to keep Sundays interesting but I am finally free of caring about the Titans vs. the Rams, or the Browns vs. the Jaguars, because my opponent may have a third-string tight end who catches a touchdown pass in the final seconds and gives my opponent a win. You can read the projections and scout the match ups and actually even watch the horrible games as if somehow your eyes and attention will somehow will your player to maximum point potential, but at the end of the day this is merely the fantasy football team “owner” turning the actual player into some sort of stock projection and we all know my feeling about stocks.
We’ve turned what was a fun game into a bad investment. My projections were faulty. I lost and lost and lost again even when I was projected to annihilate my opponents. And worse than the CEO’s who fire employees I was the owner who released players because that one week they didn’t produce. I’ve proven once again our culture’s obsession with numbers and instant gratification by playing this distracting time-consuming game within a game, that requires nothing of me but to sit on my fat ass and watch the game.
Or I could just be upset my team lost.
Of course I am talking about fantasy football. The aggravating, alienating, and mind-numbing game I was forced to play this fall by co-workers and friends alike. It has held my Sunday’s hostage for the last 12 weeks. I would wake up worrying that my players would not suit up and hit the field, not because I cared whether their team won or lost, but because I needed their points. I even found myself rooting against my favorite team if a star player on my fantasy team was up against them and I needed some “pointage.” My last straw of the absurdity of this stupid game is having a 40 point lead in the fourth quarter last night and watching my opponents reserve players collect 50 points against me in garbage time. My quarterback was so lights out and efficient it actually cost me the game because he stopped scoring.
There is no mercy rule in fantasy football. It seems the flaw in fantasy is when your players are too good that they still cost you wins. You can’t even win for making the right picks. This may be a fun past-time and a way to keep Sundays interesting but I am finally free of caring about the Titans vs. the Rams, or the Browns vs. the Jaguars, because my opponent may have a third-string tight end who catches a touchdown pass in the final seconds and gives my opponent a win. You can read the projections and scout the match ups and actually even watch the horrible games as if somehow your eyes and attention will somehow will your player to maximum point potential, but at the end of the day this is merely the fantasy football team “owner” turning the actual player into some sort of stock projection and we all know my feeling about stocks.
We’ve turned what was a fun game into a bad investment. My projections were faulty. I lost and lost and lost again even when I was projected to annihilate my opponents. And worse than the CEO’s who fire employees I was the owner who released players because that one week they didn’t produce. I’ve proven once again our culture’s obsession with numbers and instant gratification by playing this distracting time-consuming game within a game, that requires nothing of me but to sit on my fat ass and watch the game.
Or I could just be upset my team lost.
Saturday, October 15, 2011
It's a numbers game
Lately it seems we've been consumed with numbers. There are demonstrators protesting on behalf of the "other 99%" of Americans. A politician espousing his proposed tax code policy of 9-9-9. A baseball executive who is moving from Boston to Chicago that made his career looking at statistics of players over their scouting evaluations and the movie called "Moneyball" from a book that inspired that type of thinking in the first place. There are polling questions, stock market projections, and fantasy football point totals just bombarding us everywhere. Why does my running back have to have a bye week and why am I stuck starting a third-stringer? Yet among all of that madness (and poor drafting) somehow the number I can't get out of my head is that damn Subway commercial "5 dollar, 5 dollar..foot looong".
Numbers are easy to grasp. They are constant and we'll always have them to gauge our success or failure. Our economy is healthy or deathly-ill by the numbers that shoot out of computers and evaluate our financial wellness. We get bills with numbers on them. Sometimes they multiply quicker than we could have imagined. We shoot for number goals. Be it a dollar amount we want to acquire, diminish, or spend. We calculate our rate of success by a figure that we imagine will get us there. Or in some cases (more so then ever) we try to make our figure last longer. Everywhere we look a new number is shooting out at us, and with it a number to tell us what that number really means. I wish I was good at numbers. I am a writer. Numbers were not my thing, but long-winded paragraphs don't hit people with the same truth as do numbers. Numbers to people equal facts..until they don't.
Then we want to know who was running the numbers..must be the top 1%.
I'm 14 blogs away from 100..that's the new number I am shooting for. Not sure what lies after that. I think I want to wrap up my blogging career as it has yet to bestow me with the millions of followers I anticipated. I know that today I feel like I got hit by a semi-truck and I can't blame any number of drinks or shots on this one, only the annual head flu that hits me once a year. I am calculating the number of DayQuil shots I can take in conjunction with my EmergenC vitamin packets. Not exactly Petron or Jager and maybe that is really what 3 out of 4 doctors recommend. I have reservations booked at Seven Feathers today to go lose some dollar numbers playing blackjack on the horizon so it would be awesome if I felt more human and less zombie-esque. Who knew the Walking Dead was Girard Dr on a Saturday in October.
Speaking of Girard drive, this is my new writing name I am introducing on my writing career. Jon Miller is becoming Jonathan Girard. So in ten to fifteen years if you see Jonathan Girard on a bookshelf that is me. Just a heads up. It was down to Jonathan Deane (the road I grew up on in my childhood) or Girard (the home of the walking zombie today) and zombie won. The only problem with Girard is it is pretty close to Joe Girardi, the manager of the NY Yankees. However, I calculate (doing the numbers) that by the time my books hit the shelves he will be long-gone as a Yankees manager and the added value of the few diehards thinking the former coach is now a fiction writer could only help my numbers.
In the spirit of wrapping up my column nice and tidy I'm going to throw out a few numbers I'd like to focus on this weekend. 21: as in blackjack and I hope I hit that a few times tonight. 40-21: As in 49ers over the Detroit Lions tomorrow morning when I am chowing down on a big breakfast and a Bloody Mary (make that 2 bloody marys). 111: the amount of points I want my fantasy football team to score. 121,000: the jackpot at slots I hit? Sure. Two friends, 1 girlfriend and one hell of a time. Is this too much to ask for?
Numbers are easy to grasp. They are constant and we'll always have them to gauge our success or failure. Our economy is healthy or deathly-ill by the numbers that shoot out of computers and evaluate our financial wellness. We get bills with numbers on them. Sometimes they multiply quicker than we could have imagined. We shoot for number goals. Be it a dollar amount we want to acquire, diminish, or spend. We calculate our rate of success by a figure that we imagine will get us there. Or in some cases (more so then ever) we try to make our figure last longer. Everywhere we look a new number is shooting out at us, and with it a number to tell us what that number really means. I wish I was good at numbers. I am a writer. Numbers were not my thing, but long-winded paragraphs don't hit people with the same truth as do numbers. Numbers to people equal facts..until they don't.
Then we want to know who was running the numbers..must be the top 1%.
I'm 14 blogs away from 100..that's the new number I am shooting for. Not sure what lies after that. I think I want to wrap up my blogging career as it has yet to bestow me with the millions of followers I anticipated. I know that today I feel like I got hit by a semi-truck and I can't blame any number of drinks or shots on this one, only the annual head flu that hits me once a year. I am calculating the number of DayQuil shots I can take in conjunction with my EmergenC vitamin packets. Not exactly Petron or Jager and maybe that is really what 3 out of 4 doctors recommend. I have reservations booked at Seven Feathers today to go lose some dollar numbers playing blackjack on the horizon so it would be awesome if I felt more human and less zombie-esque. Who knew the Walking Dead was Girard Dr on a Saturday in October.
Speaking of Girard drive, this is my new writing name I am introducing on my writing career. Jon Miller is becoming Jonathan Girard. So in ten to fifteen years if you see Jonathan Girard on a bookshelf that is me. Just a heads up. It was down to Jonathan Deane (the road I grew up on in my childhood) or Girard (the home of the walking zombie today) and zombie won. The only problem with Girard is it is pretty close to Joe Girardi, the manager of the NY Yankees. However, I calculate (doing the numbers) that by the time my books hit the shelves he will be long-gone as a Yankees manager and the added value of the few diehards thinking the former coach is now a fiction writer could only help my numbers.
In the spirit of wrapping up my column nice and tidy I'm going to throw out a few numbers I'd like to focus on this weekend. 21: as in blackjack and I hope I hit that a few times tonight. 40-21: As in 49ers over the Detroit Lions tomorrow morning when I am chowing down on a big breakfast and a Bloody Mary (make that 2 bloody marys). 111: the amount of points I want my fantasy football team to score. 121,000: the jackpot at slots I hit? Sure. Two friends, 1 girlfriend and one hell of a time. Is this too much to ask for?
Saturday, October 8, 2011
My meaning of life
I'm looking out my front window and see the sun poking through the autumn leaves. It's nice to see the sun after a few gray days and as late fall and winter approaches we have to absorb more of it, sort of hang on to it as a memory of the year that passed us. People sometimes like to reflect on their year in the winter. That leads to a more depressing reflection because we've been in the cold so many months we forgot what the sun felt like. I think it is best to reflect on the year in the fall. The leaves are changing and falling just as we are aging ourselves. We are in a sense getting ourselves prepared to bed up in our bunkers for the next few months. We won't be out as much, the gym will get visited less frequently, and there are more family Holidays but less time with friends.
There is an uneasy restlessness in our society. We are mad but we don't know exactly at who. The politicians and media wants us to lay blame somewhere but it could very well be at ourselves for listening so much to the politicians and media. There always needs to be media just as politicians always need a cause to push for. There is less honor in the workplace. Maybe there was always the illusion of honor and honesty but even that guise has been lifted. We are told to eat our cold porridge and be grateful for it. When people are throwing tomatoes at you that can be a lot harder. Causes are easy to join because they separate ourselves individually from our decisions. If we stepped back for a moment and looked at our own choices we may see that some of the blame lies within ourselves and not at this blank screen everyone wants to hurl their anger at together. Individual choices don't sell advertisement dollars or bring in television cameras however.
The internet brought people together. There is no denying the power of technology. It also has let us shift a lot of individual reasoning to mass appeal. We no longer have to search within ourselves for answers when we can google something closely resembling it and fill in the blanks from there. We no longer have to soul search, we search engine it. It used to be fun to remember and imagine our past now we can youtube clips of it. Somehow it seemed better in our memory.
I remember playing Legend of Zelda and thinking it was the coolest game ever when I was a kid. Youtube clips tell me I was mistaken. I remember playing Where in the World is Carmen San Diego on an ancient Apple computer and loving that game. I hope I never find the clips of it to change my mind. We act as though it's always been this way, yet the majority of us have had the internet for 17 years of our lives. Who knows what mass hysteria would have existed if we had access to it 20, 30, or 50 years ago.
Life isn't about quick decisions, about instant answers, nor is it about laying blame. Maybe we expected too much. Maybe we were told something was possible when it really wasn't at all. Or maybe we were told something was going to make us happy but when we got there and landed on that spot we didn't feel the way that we were supposed to at all. Television and the internet can inspire many surface emotions, but they can't penetrate into your soul. They can't tell you who you are, though they will forever try. We are not the music we listen to any more then we are the food that we eat. We are not the things we buy any more than we are the places we like to visit. We are not where we bank anymore than we are where we go to school. These are marketing tools. You are being sold something.
I'm as guilty jumping on the next conspiracy as the last person. I pretty much have laid blame on everyone from the CEO's, the government, to the sun shining down upon me. You can find every reason in the world to feel lied to, misled, betrayed, and guilty. Just put something in a search engine hit the send key and off you go into whatever tangent of life you want to satiate at that moment. Go for it. But today on this fall day in October I am only searching the engine in my own head for answers. If it takes me sometime, I'm ok with it. If I never find the answer I seek well then I will wander aimlessly through life for a while. I'm done giving over the most valuable commodity we have left on this planet away for free, our minds.
There is an uneasy restlessness in our society. We are mad but we don't know exactly at who. The politicians and media wants us to lay blame somewhere but it could very well be at ourselves for listening so much to the politicians and media. There always needs to be media just as politicians always need a cause to push for. There is less honor in the workplace. Maybe there was always the illusion of honor and honesty but even that guise has been lifted. We are told to eat our cold porridge and be grateful for it. When people are throwing tomatoes at you that can be a lot harder. Causes are easy to join because they separate ourselves individually from our decisions. If we stepped back for a moment and looked at our own choices we may see that some of the blame lies within ourselves and not at this blank screen everyone wants to hurl their anger at together. Individual choices don't sell advertisement dollars or bring in television cameras however.
The internet brought people together. There is no denying the power of technology. It also has let us shift a lot of individual reasoning to mass appeal. We no longer have to search within ourselves for answers when we can google something closely resembling it and fill in the blanks from there. We no longer have to soul search, we search engine it. It used to be fun to remember and imagine our past now we can youtube clips of it. Somehow it seemed better in our memory.
I remember playing Legend of Zelda and thinking it was the coolest game ever when I was a kid. Youtube clips tell me I was mistaken. I remember playing Where in the World is Carmen San Diego on an ancient Apple computer and loving that game. I hope I never find the clips of it to change my mind. We act as though it's always been this way, yet the majority of us have had the internet for 17 years of our lives. Who knows what mass hysteria would have existed if we had access to it 20, 30, or 50 years ago.
Life isn't about quick decisions, about instant answers, nor is it about laying blame. Maybe we expected too much. Maybe we were told something was possible when it really wasn't at all. Or maybe we were told something was going to make us happy but when we got there and landed on that spot we didn't feel the way that we were supposed to at all. Television and the internet can inspire many surface emotions, but they can't penetrate into your soul. They can't tell you who you are, though they will forever try. We are not the music we listen to any more then we are the food that we eat. We are not the things we buy any more than we are the places we like to visit. We are not where we bank anymore than we are where we go to school. These are marketing tools. You are being sold something.
I'm as guilty jumping on the next conspiracy as the last person. I pretty much have laid blame on everyone from the CEO's, the government, to the sun shining down upon me. You can find every reason in the world to feel lied to, misled, betrayed, and guilty. Just put something in a search engine hit the send key and off you go into whatever tangent of life you want to satiate at that moment. Go for it. But today on this fall day in October I am only searching the engine in my own head for answers. If it takes me sometime, I'm ok with it. If I never find the answer I seek well then I will wander aimlessly through life for a while. I'm done giving over the most valuable commodity we have left on this planet away for free, our minds.
Monday, October 3, 2011
Making money..now, no now, wait...NOW
The news that Don Lapree committed suicide in his prison cell awaiting his trial on a 52 million dollar fraud charge brought me back a few years. I was enthralled with the idea of easy money and remember watching his late night infomercials with the belief he was the smartest man in the world. Down on his luck Don, had somehow defied the odds and become a millionaire and he was graciously sharing his success with us. He wanted ALL of us to make money with him.
I was 17 when I fell in love with the pitch: Making money now, Making money easy, and most importantly making money. The images dazzled. Young guy on the screen talking passionately on how he succeeded against all odds and you can too. All you need to do is buy his video with his booklet on the steps following his own path to success. I was ambitious and ready to start my own empire I picked up the phone and ordered the program. Don Lapree’s Making Money program arrived in the mail two weeks later.
At least I was 17 when I picked up the phone and dialed. In hindsight the advertisements were horribly made and the package I received even worse. The video showed Don in a conference room scribbling his vision on a white board while they all nodded in scripted fascination that we would later call reality television. “Oh so we just make ads in newspapers and advertise them across the country?” “Oh, so we don’t really need a product to sell..we can sell anything.” “Oh the most important thing to do is find newspapers where we can place these ads and the checks start rolling in.” The video while probably shot in the early 90’s looked straight from the 70’s. The men and women could have been shipped from an instructional video for any bank in 1980. The men wore ugly suits, the women offensively hideous dresses, and Don was wearing his trademark everyman t-shirt teaching these business professionals how to “really” make money.
This prevailing attitude stuck with me unfortunately for years. Success wasn’t about education it was about effort. He just worked harder and he out-smarted the system. He used his passion and drive to create his wealth; he didn’t follow the path given to all of us. We could either follow his lead or become these people sitting at the table in their ghastly attire. We could punch the clock everyday and live in want, or we could seize the day and start making little newspaper advertisements and selling some anonymous product to other people nationally. Granted, this was before computers and the internet became a household appliance when newspaper advertisements were still something people actually purchased. Join or be left behind a desk wallowing while the other Don Lapree disciples lounge on a tropical beach with a mai tai in hand while their money is made overnight.
Now almost 20 years later we remember the folly. As in anything in life, the illusion is always more fascinating than the reality. We want therefore it must be possible. The images glossy, the voices animated, and the reality television life not as real as we all believed it to be. Madison Avenue can sell us any product and we lap it up. The news media can feed us any story and we respond in kind. We are hungry for information so we will devour anything, be it what is force fed or what is given to us as unhealthy substitutes for actual knowledge. Somehow we cling to what we know is fiction because the reality is less satisfying, rewarding, or inspiring. That fiction however perpetrates into lifestyles as unfulfilled and unobtainable. You are chasing a balloon that slipped through your fingertips into the atmosphere above, a balloon that you will never capture. The higher you climb in altitude in pursuit of it the less of a prize awaits your grasp. You start to realize it was all hot air. And as your hand reaches its final desperate grab, it pops, and you are 12000 feet above the ground with no parachute. A life you lived only an illusion, but the ensuing fall before you is very, very real.
I was 17 when I fell in love with the pitch: Making money now, Making money easy, and most importantly making money. The images dazzled. Young guy on the screen talking passionately on how he succeeded against all odds and you can too. All you need to do is buy his video with his booklet on the steps following his own path to success. I was ambitious and ready to start my own empire I picked up the phone and ordered the program. Don Lapree’s Making Money program arrived in the mail two weeks later.
At least I was 17 when I picked up the phone and dialed. In hindsight the advertisements were horribly made and the package I received even worse. The video showed Don in a conference room scribbling his vision on a white board while they all nodded in scripted fascination that we would later call reality television. “Oh so we just make ads in newspapers and advertise them across the country?” “Oh, so we don’t really need a product to sell..we can sell anything.” “Oh the most important thing to do is find newspapers where we can place these ads and the checks start rolling in.” The video while probably shot in the early 90’s looked straight from the 70’s. The men and women could have been shipped from an instructional video for any bank in 1980. The men wore ugly suits, the women offensively hideous dresses, and Don was wearing his trademark everyman t-shirt teaching these business professionals how to “really” make money.
This prevailing attitude stuck with me unfortunately for years. Success wasn’t about education it was about effort. He just worked harder and he out-smarted the system. He used his passion and drive to create his wealth; he didn’t follow the path given to all of us. We could either follow his lead or become these people sitting at the table in their ghastly attire. We could punch the clock everyday and live in want, or we could seize the day and start making little newspaper advertisements and selling some anonymous product to other people nationally. Granted, this was before computers and the internet became a household appliance when newspaper advertisements were still something people actually purchased. Join or be left behind a desk wallowing while the other Don Lapree disciples lounge on a tropical beach with a mai tai in hand while their money is made overnight.
Now almost 20 years later we remember the folly. As in anything in life, the illusion is always more fascinating than the reality. We want therefore it must be possible. The images glossy, the voices animated, and the reality television life not as real as we all believed it to be. Madison Avenue can sell us any product and we lap it up. The news media can feed us any story and we respond in kind. We are hungry for information so we will devour anything, be it what is force fed or what is given to us as unhealthy substitutes for actual knowledge. Somehow we cling to what we know is fiction because the reality is less satisfying, rewarding, or inspiring. That fiction however perpetrates into lifestyles as unfulfilled and unobtainable. You are chasing a balloon that slipped through your fingertips into the atmosphere above, a balloon that you will never capture. The higher you climb in altitude in pursuit of it the less of a prize awaits your grasp. You start to realize it was all hot air. And as your hand reaches its final desperate grab, it pops, and you are 12000 feet above the ground with no parachute. A life you lived only an illusion, but the ensuing fall before you is very, very real.
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